I’m honestly happy to know that the guy I knew from fifth grade is doing well. I like that my ex-girlfriend from high school is happy despite a divorce and being a grandmother by age 35.

But Facebook has some gnarly bad sides as well.

It’s a big time suck. You have more racist friends than you ever knew. There’s the one friend who poses with a new Porsche everyday, too.

It’s almost seems like it’s designed to make you dislike the people you’re social with.

Or at least it can feel that way.

I deleted Facebook from my phone two months ago. And it’s turned out to be a great decision.

I now Facebook on my own terms. Once every couple of days, I’ll hop in and scroll through. The algorithm is smart enough to know who I want to see and what types of content.

But I don’t pop it open on a whim any longer. I don’t stop what I’m doing to see the alert it wants me to see. I don’t find myself getting worked up over my fascist cousin and psychopath ex-boss when I should be working.

One thing meditation and mindfulness have taught me is that no one, and no thing, should have control over my emotions. That doesn’t mean I’m not prone to manipulation from time to time, but I can identify it quickly and step away.

So I keep Facebook at an arm’s length. When I get the urge to kill time, I pull open a book, or LinkedIn if I really want to know what other people are thinking.

Confession: Twitter is still addictive to me. I don’t feel as emotionally manipulated there because it’s far more anonymous and I don’t get too disappointed or excited by what people do there.

The craziest thing about deleting Facebook

Facebook loses it’s damn mind when you go a few days without logging in.

“(That guy you knew in fourth grade) just updated his status!” is the subject line of the email they send you – three times a day. “(Your crazy cousin who you thought was in prison) has an event coming up!”

It just pillages your inbox, begging for attention. When you log in, it’s picked dozens of alerts that you must see.

It’s like a child that needs your attention. But it really kind of reinforces when I created some space around it in the first place.

I don’t mind. I do Facebook when I’m ready. Same thing with Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat (yeah, I have one), LinkedIn and any other network. I love my networks, but I engage them when I’m ready, and that’s all.